Random Thought #10 On Film, Soundtracks, and Black Music

Every so often, I'll watch a movie. And when I watch a movie as a music fan in general, I have to hear the soundtracks. For me, a great soundtrack could make or break a movie.  As predicted, a bad soundtrack, could really piss me off and make me become highly uninterested in a movie or show no matter how good it might be.

For example, Check out this trailer for The Interview:

This trailer is laced with Black music, and so is the entire movie. But the context of the songs is so very wrong. What does EnVogue's "Free Your Mind" have to do with anything in the movie? I saw this film and all I came away with was, what does Syl Johnson's "Is It Because I'm Black" have to do with the main characters walking up to the fortress?  That song is a very heavy song that was done unjustly by inserting it into a movie that falls into a comedy genre.  This had some great potential, but all of the misplacement of Black music, and the fake Black slang was a huge turnoff for me. I had to give it one star in hopes nothing like that would show up in my Netflix feed ever again. 

Another instance is the Deadpool trailers. Here's the first one

Here's the second one:

What does Salt N Peppa's "Shoop" have to do with the trailer? Does he sex somebody down in the movie?  In this case, I 'd have to see the movie to find out, but I suspect it doesn't fit in the entire movie. That placement of Shoop really turned me off. 

It's like the people who use Black music in their movies have no concept of context. It's like they go, "Dude! Here is a really cool Black song to put riiiight here! It'll be, like sooo awesome!"  Except with The Interview, they decided to create something of a White Blaxploitation film sprinkled with horrible slang.  It's like they don't really know anybody whose Black for real, and they had no Black writers, but somebody told them to "Black it up and make it feel more, ummm urban, ya know? Kay, thanks guys!" And a lot of the films have just one Black person in them. I don't remember if there were any Black faces in The Interview, and I probably won't see Deadpool because I'm an asshole like that when it comes to soundtracks. 

All I ask is for some accurate context for the placement of Black music in these films, especially if the show has no Black people in them and has Black music recklessly strewn throughout the entire thing. 

Am I asking too much?  Knowing the history of this sort of thing, I probably am. This is another reason why we should hold on to our own and not be so quick to "sell" them our stuff, because this is exactly why they can't have nice things. 

****Update: So I checked out Deadpool, and Shoop fits because of the relationship he has with his woman. I won't spoil it for you, but you'll get why they put it there if you go see it. 

Random Thought #5

I think I figured out why a lot of trash rap artists get cosigned and the better ones don't. I also figured out why the rap fans are overwhelmingly White these days.

The reason bad rappers get a lot of shine and have a lot of white fans is because White people love to hear Black people talk shit about themselves.

They applaud it, but as soon as an artist speaks positive and uplifts their people, they don't want to hear it or they call it "boring".

Look at whose calling the shots. It ain't us.

The White rap fan and the person writing the rapper's check are one in the same.

And that goes for those nominating the rappers for awards.

I knew it was an attempt to brainwash people, but I didn't really put the White fans into account.

Now I wonder why they like rap and if it's for real or not.

What brought this on, you ask? Well. It reminded me of a time where me and my husband were downtown, and this jeep full of frat bro looking White guys were blasting a song out of their jeep where the rappers were saying "Nigga" a lot. They didn't blast it until they got near the intersection my husband and I were waiting to cross at.

And I side eyed at them as they hurried around the corner like, "Really?" 0_o


What made me think about this was he had the album, and that made me wonder about White rap fans in general. What's their motive for buying the music? Do they really like it, or are they using it to pull bullshit like that, or engage in confirmation bias? Are they using it to confirm certain stereotypes?

It makes since because they call Eminem one of the greatest while I've always found him corny. Yeah, he can spit, I'll give him that, but he doesn't move me like that. I find it funny that people were saying that he talked about "real stuff". And I'm like , yeah... "real" like raping women, calling your mother and girlfriend  all kinds of bitches sluts and whores, talking about locking women in trunks, doing drugs and being White.  In fact, that's all he talked about during his first two albums.

So I guess he IS real. For White people, that is.

Which is so on point that as soon as a White artist gets a bit of clout in well, anything or anywhere they are deemed a visitor, instead of respecting the space, they start flexing a bit. Insert Em's album title called Rap God. And today I found out that Action Bronson had the nerve to say he was better than Ghostface Killa on live TV no less. Nevermind that his whole style of rap is exactly like Ghostface's but that's not my business.




Honestly, I saw this coming sooner or later. It was all a matter of time. It's a tried and true pattern of behavior but this time, he ended up writing a check his ass couldn't cash. Until then, I'll wait and see what happens next.

Needless to say, this is why we need our own media and our own everything else away from greedy, prying, eyes that feel left out of whatever they're feeling left out from. Because if we don't get that, then this sort of thing will be what we will always fall victim to.